DETROIT -- Alex Avila is second in the American League All-Star voting at catcher.

Justin Verlander thinks that is "absurd." So he is trying to do something about it.

Verlander has taken to Twitter to start a campaign to get fans to vote for Avila.

“I think he's deserving to be the starting catcher,” Verlander said Friday afternoon. “If you look at his numbers, I think it's absurd that he's not leading.”

When the most recent All-Star ballot totals were announced, Avila trailed New York Yankees catcher Russell Martin by about 500,000 votes. Martin led AL catchers with about 2.2 million votes.

Through Thursday, Martin was hitting .233 with nine home runs and 30 RBIs. Avila entered the game Friday night hitting .300 with nine home runs and 41 RBIs,

Verlander started his Twitter account about six weeks ago and has not been very active, but he already has more than 14,000 followers. As of Friday evening, he had posted just 14 Tweets, but 11 of them featured a #VoteAvila hashtag in an attempt to promote his catcher.

“He has some UFC fighter friends who have a lot of followers, so I think he's going to try to get them to do it,” Verlander said. “The ultimate goal is to get him voted to the All-Star Game. How do you do that? You get him attention. This is basically a great tool for that.”

Avila is having a great season at the plate, but Verlander is most impressed with his work behind the plate.

“I think everybody projected him as a pretty good hitter, but I don't know if anybody projected him to be this good of a catcher in this short term,” he said. “He's really turned the page in a lot of aspects of his catching abilities. That quick turnaround is a testament to how hard he's worked at it.”

Verlander said Major League Baseball needs to figure out a way to field the best All-Star teams since so much is at stake.

“If they're going to make the All-Star Game count for home-field advantage for the World Series, it should be the best players in the game at that point in time, bar none,” he said. “There's got to be a better way to get fans involved, in my opinion, than to have them decide the starting lineup in a game that is that important for somebody in every locker room.

“I don't think every team should have to be represented. I think a true All-Star Game has the best players at that time. It's not quite done that way right now.”